1. Short Stories

2. Warm-up
Play a few rounds of Countdown online and use the words created in a piece of free writing.
Improve my sentence by embellishing: The man fell.
Free Write

3. Our Next Unit: You’ve got options!
Short Story/ Personal Narrative
NaNo WriMo
We will start in October
You’ll write a short story
You’ll develop the short story
You’ll have a third unit
National Novel Writing Month
We will start in October
You will write in November
You’ll set your word count every day
You’ll probably not have a third unit

4. How do you write a great short story?
Characters
Conflict
Point of View
Dialogue
Context
Setting

5. Free Write
Anything you want
Create a story using words of one-syllable only, beginning with a phrase such as:
“The last time I saw her, she...”
“From the back of the truck...”
“On the night of the full moon...”
“The one thing I know for sure…”
Describe a significant place, allowing the details to reveal why the place matters. Describe it from a tree or rooftop or from a hawk’s point of view. Describe it from the height of a dog or a turtle.

6. Snaps’n’Shares

7. Warm-up Anything You Want!!!
Eavesdrop conversations and turn soundbites into a piece of writing. 
‘Still life’ description. Use the object displayed at the front of the classroom. Write a descriptive piece on it.

8. Planning a Short Story Collect ideas for your story
Building Characters
To make your characters realistic you can borrow attributes from people you already know or strangers you have seen. People watching with the notebook is a great way to spend some time writing what you see, you never know when it might be useful.
Get to know your characters
Think about your characters and really get to know their looks, likes, dislikes, etc. You might not share this with your readers in the story but it will help with making them real .
Map out the Story plan
REMEMBER you don’t have to write your short story in order, you can write the ending first. Then ask yourself ‘what happened before this?’ If you have strong ideas for certain parts of the story write these first.
Size Matters – Limit the breadth of your story.
The main events of a short story should occur in a relatively short period of time (days or even minutes), and you typically won’t be able to develop effectively more than one plot, two or three main characters, (the professional opinion is a maximum of four) and one setting. If your story has much more breadth, it probably needs to be a novella or novel.

9. Plan/ Find Inspiration for Your Short Story
Planning
Quietly observe a person at school for 15 minutes and create a story about him or her
Turn a poem you made into a story
Dictionary Detail: choose ten random words from a dictionary and use them to suggest a character, a setting, and a problem. Put the character into a situation where the problem is not easily overcome and write a short story.
Story Board
Outline
Free Write
Character Sketch

10. Planning: Answer the following Questions
Who is your short story aimed towards? (Audience)
What do you want your reader to know when they finish reading your story?
Where do you want your story to take place?
When do you want your story to take place?
Who do you want to be involved in your story?
What genre will your story be?

11. Developing Characters

12. Agenda Character type review Qualities of a Good Character Discussion
Plan your Characters

13. 7 Common Character Types
Flat
Round
Dynamic
Static
Stock
Foil
Confidante

14. Round or Flat?
Authors must decide how much detail to include about each character.
Which characters are most important?
How will giving detail, or not giving detail, about that character affect the story?

15. Round
Characters that are described in depth, with many details, are well-rounded characters. They are called round characters.
The main character in a story is almost always round.
If you are reading a story and you feel like you know a character extremely well, then most likely the character is round.

16. Flat
Characters that are not described well —that you are not given much information about — are flat characters.

17. Flat
Consider a drawing: a three- dimensional drawing gives more detail than a one-dimensional drawing.
If you draw a two-dimensional, flat picture of a house, for example, you can only see one side of it. You cannot see three of the four sides.
This is how a flat character is; you can only see a few characteristics of the character. There are many things you cannot “see,” or many details you are not given by the author.
Round

18. Static or Dynamic?

19. Static or Dynamic?
The key word when dealing with the difference between static and dynamic characters is ‘change’.
The type of change, though, is specific. We are only concerned with internal changes —changes which occur within the character.
Internal changes include a change in his/her personality , a change in his/her outlook on life, a change in his/her values, or it could be an overall change in the nature of the character.

20. Static or Dynamic?
Do not focus on changes that happen TO a character, but rather, changes that happen WITHIN a character.
Think about it this way: Does the event affect the character by changing the character internally?

21. Static Static = not moving or changing
(ex: static electricity is static unlike current electricity which is moving!!
In order for a character to be considered a static character, the character must remain basically the same throughout the entire story.
The character does not undergo any internal changes.

22. Static
Think of static characterization like plastic surgery. The character may change in looks, but unless his/her personality is affected, the character is static.

23. Dynamic
A dynamic character is a character that undergoes an internal change sometime between the beginning and end of the story.
The change in the character is usually crucial to the story itself.

24. Dynamic
Say a main character goes through a life- altering experience, such as a race car driver getting into an accident. If the driver's personality changes, and he is no longer willing to take on the risk of driving a race car, the character would be dynamic.

25. Static or Dynamic?
Look closely at your character at the beginning of the story. Ask these three questions:
How does the character feel about him/her/itself?
How does the character act towards others?
What is the character’s goal?
Examine your character throughout the story and at the end of the story. Have the answers to the questions changed?
Static = no change within the character
Dynamic = the character changes internally

26. Stock Character
A ‘stock’ character is…
special kind of flat character who is instantly recognizable to most readers.
They are ‘stock’ or ‘typecast’ or ‘stereotypical’ characters
Examples include: the ruthless businessman
the shushing old, white-haired librarian
the dumb jock
They are not focus characters nor are they developed in the story.
(They fulfill background or filler roles.)

27. Foil Character
A ‘foil’ character is…
special kind of character who is used to enhance another character through contrast
i.e. as opposites they highlight qualities of a central character
Examples include:
- the mean step-sisters contrast to Cinderella’s character
- Asher’s silly, careless, childish qualities contrast and highlight some of Jonas’ qualities.
They are not focus characters nor are they developed in the story.
(They help us learn more about another character or aspect of a story.)

28. Confidante Character
A ‘confidant’ character is…
special kind of character who the main character confides in.
When the main character confides (shares/trusts) they reveal qualities, personality, thoughts, feelings
Example:
- Gabriel is a confident for Jonas to share some of his feelings with (although Gabe serves other purposes as well)
A confidante helps us learn more about our central/main character

29. What qualities do you think a good character has?
Discussion

30. Fill out the character questionnaire
In-Class and Homework
Fill out the character questionnaire

31. Warm-up Finish your character development worksheet
Describe a “first” (first apartment, first kiss, first time driving a car, first lie, first big success, first roller coaster ride, first time in this setting). Include as many details as possible, being sure to include an aspect relating to each of the five senses.
Describe a memorable event, positive or negative, and how it felt to you, but do not name the feeling. Instead, tell how it felt in your body (damp hands, metallic taste, tight throat, wobbly knees, etc.).
Write the map to where you live. Start as close or as far from your home as you wish.

32. Developing Conflict

33. TTYPS
What is something you once really wanted but had a hard time getting? What made it hard to get?

34. Literary conflict is primarily about the clashing of one person’s desires with his/her own faults, the desires of others, and the circumstances surrounding them.

35. Task:
Fill out your conflict worksheet with your character worksheet nearby
Find a partner you haven’t worked with before
Have a partner write down a quick critique about conflict
Does the conflict count as a conflict?
Would their characters really have that kind of conflict?
Is the conflict engaging?
Is it enough to write an entire novel about?

36. Give One, Take One Nominate your partner to share their conflict
Listen to their ideas you can take them and apply to your work

37. Creating the Plot

38. Setting the Reader up for the Ride of Their Life
Students will read the descriptions of set-up, inciting incident, and rising action along with the example story for each stop on the rollercoaster.
Think about the pacing the author uses at the beginning. What does he or she do?
Choose your favorite book and fill out the plot diagram for it

40. Other Plot Lines

41. Plan your Plot How do you want to set up your book/ short story?
What will be the inciting incident?
Plan your rising action till the climax.
Use your partner as a soundboard

42. Warm-up Whatever you want
“I have to explain what’s happened here. I have to explain myself.”
At the edge of the known universe, there’s just one thing: a diner run by a man who calls himself __________.
I spy with my little eye…
Your character changes jobs in order to have more time with his family. But his family doesn't seem interested in having him around...

43. Plot continuation

44. Read about Climax, Falling Action, and Dénouement/ Resolution on your own
Apply your knowledge
Fill out the plot chart for the short films

46. EXPOSITION – Day is messing around learning his talent
EXPOSITION – Day is messing around learning his talent. Night is sleeping.
CONFLICT – They’re not happy w/ their time of day & are jealous.
RISING ACTION – They beat each other up and show off to prove they are better than the other person.
MOVIE MOMENT: Which part of the plot do these characters’ facial expressions show?
ANSWER: The exposition when they learn about each other, and the conflict when their jealousy begins.
CLIMAX – When they stop to listen to the radio antennae…up until when they’re the same time of day
Climax
MENU
FALLING ACTION – They become the other time of day. Dance w/ each other. Play w/ new powers.
Rising Action
Falling Action
Conflict
RESOLUTION –They become satisfied & not jealous anymore.
Exposition
Resolution

47. MENU EXPOSITION – Little birds line up on the telephone line & bicker.
CLIMAX – Big bird’s last finger slips off the telephone line.
CONFLICT – Little birds mock awkward bird & exclude the outsider.
FALLING ACTION – Little birds all fall naked. Big bird laughs.
RISING ACTION – Big bird lands between them. Little birds peck his fingers to knock him off line.
RESOLUTION – Little naked birds all run and hide safely behind the bird they mocked earlier.
Climax
MENU
MOVIE MOMENT: How does this movie screenshot tell us what time in history this story happens?
ANSWER: The story had to happen after telephone lines were invented and strung up across the country.
Rising Action
Falling Action
Conflict
Exposition
Resolution

48. EXPOSITION – Quiet fields & house, sleeping boy starts lifting
LIFTED
CONFLICT – Alien-in-training doesn’t know how to “lift”
MOVIE MOMENT: In the exposition, what does the mood of this farm setting feel like before the aliens arrive?
MENU
RISING ACTION – Alien boy gets more and more frustrated with his inability to “lift”
ANSWER: The feeling is calm and sleepy, the porch swing gently swinging, the weathercock shifting softly in the breeze.
CLIMAX – Alien boy gets cocky and human boy falls through hole in ship
Climax
FALLING ACTION – Alien teacher fixes everything in the house and lets alien boy drive the spaceship
RESOLUTION – Alien boy crashes spaceship and human boy is left “lifted” on a giant spire in a canyon
Rising Action
Falling Action
Conflict
Exposition
Resolution

49. Geri’s
game
EXPOSITION – Geri sits down at a table in the park and sets up chess.
MENU
CONFLICT – Nobody is at the park to play chess w/ Geri.
MOVIE MOMENT: After Geri has won the chess game, why does he ask for his teeth back?
RISING ACTION – Laughing Geri takes all Geri’s pieces, and it looks like he’s going to win.
ANSWER: He lost his teeth to himself last time he played, and he was hoping he’d win so he could earn them back.
CLIMAX – Geri fakes a heart attack, flips the board around, and gets away with his trick.
Climax
FALLING ACTION – Laughing Geri realizes he’s losing. Geri sits back and smiles.
Rising Action
Falling Action
RESOLUTION – Geri wins his teeth back from himself (apparently, he lost them last time he played himself).
Conflict
Exposition
Resolution

50. EXPOSITION – Storks in Cloudland; Storks deliver the baby animals
EXPOSITION – Storks in Cloudland; Storks deliver the baby animals. Stork wants to deliver animals.
MOVIE MOMENT: How does this movie still epitomize how Nimbus feels about his job?
Climax
ANSWER: Nimbus loves his job, but even more, he wants to feel wanted. This moment is when he sees that stork isn’t going to leave.
CONFLICT – Stork’s Nimbus cloud only makes dangerous animals.
Rising Action
RISING ACTION – Stork delivers Crocodile, Ram, Porcupine, Shark. Then leaves to go be with happy Cumulous Cloud.
Falling Action
Conflict
Exposition
Resolution
CLIMAX – Nimbus gets mad (lightning) and cries (rain). Stork returns and puts on protective gear.
FALLING ACTION – Nimbus hugs Stork. Nimbus makes an electric eel, which shocks Stork.
RESOLUTION – Stork and Nimbus work together forever making & delivering animals.
MENU

51. EXPOSITION – Baby enters room and starts playing with toys
EXPOSITION – Baby enters room and starts playing with toys. Tin Toy is ready to be played with.
MENU
CONFLICT – Baby scares Tin Toy by smashing the other toys.
RISING ACTION – Tin Toy runs away from Baby. Other toys under couch. Baby falls and starts crying.
MOVIE MOMENT: In this exposition movie still, what emotions are on Tin Toy’s face?
ANSWER: Hope and expectation that he’ll be a good toy for the toddler.
CLIMAX – Baby’s crying and Tin Toy goes out to cheer baby up. Baby grabs Tin Toy and gets happy.
Climax
FALLING ACTION – Baby finds the box, starts playing w/ the box and the bag.
Rising Action
Falling Action
RESOLUTION – Tin Toy can’t get Baby’s attention because Baby’s playing with the bag.
Conflict
Exposition
Resolution

52. EXPOSITION – Burn-E is a welding robot who really wants to do his job.
MENU
CONFLICT – A meteor strikes a light in his job sector.
RISING ACTION – He tries & tries to fix the light but things keep going wrong. The ship flies back to Earth.
MOVIE MOMENT: In this Rising Action movie still, how does it show us Burn-E’s inner person?
ANSWER: He is a soft, sensitive robot that would make flower shapes and wants to do his job.
CLIMAX – Burn-E finds Supply-R & finally pushes the power button.
Climax
FALLING ACTION – The lid flies through the air toward the ship.
Rising Action
Falling Action
Conflict
RESOLUTION – The lid smashes into the light again. Burn-E faints.
Exposition
Resolution

53. EXPOSITION – We see all the different tropical toys and locations
EXPOSITION – We see all the different tropical toys and locations. Bikini girl waves at Snowman.
CONFLICT – Snowman wants bikini girl, but he’s stuck in snow globe.
MOVIE MOMENT: How does the look on Snowman’s face show how far he’s willing to go to overcome the conflict?
RISING ACTION – Snowman tries everything to get out of the snow globe.
MENU
ANSWER: He is so excited that he’ll do anything to get out of the snow globe.
CLIMAX – Snowman climbs out of snow globe, falls into fish tank, and sees Mermaid.
Climax
FALLING ACTION – Snow globe falls down on him.
Rising Action
Falling Action
RESOLUTION – Snowman is stuck in snow globe again and can’t have Mermaid or Bikini girl.
Conflict
Exposition
Resolution

54. EXPOSITION – We meet magician & rabbit about to perform
EXPOSITION – We meet magician & rabbit about to perform. Rabbit is hungry.
CONFLICT – Rabbit wants carrot, but magician won’t give it to him unless he performs.
MOVIE MOMENT: How do the magician’s & rabbit’s facial expressions illustrate the conflict?
RISING ACTION – Magician keeps trying all kinds of tricks, but the rabbit gets revenge on him each time. The audience loves the slapstick show.
MENU
ANSWER: The magician wants the rabbit to do its job for him, while the rabbit is distraught that the magician won’t give him his carrot.
CLIMAX – Magician is falling from the ceiling and will die if the rabbit doesn’t pull a trick out of his hat to save him.
Climax
FALLING ACTION – The audience loves the show and applauds.
Rising Action
Falling Action
Conflict
RESOLUTION – Magician realizes rabbit did a great job and makes peace, gives him carrot.
Exposition
Resolution

55. MENU
EXPOSITION – Dug is a talking dog. It is his birthday. He loves special missions. He made a wish.
CONFLICT – The mean dogs want to ruin Dug’s birthday.
RISING ACTION – All of the mean dogs’ tricks end up hurting them instead of Dug.
MOVIE MOMENT: How does this movie screenshot tell us what time in history this story happens?
CLIMAX – The mean dogs call their master. They say Dug is a bad dog.
Climax
ANSWER: Talking dog collars are something from the future.
FALLING ACTION – Dug finds the old man. He gets a new master.
Rising Action
Falling Action
Conflict
RESOLUTION – Dug speaks and surprises the boy and the old man.
Exposition
Resolution

56. Pacing of a Story or Novel
Were there sections that you found too long or short? How were the events paced to match changes in time, place, or the mood of the story? When was this most effective? Did you find the end of the film to provide a satisfying resolution to the conflict? Why or why not? **Answer these questions in your head about your favorite novel**

57. Continue to Outline Your Plot
Plan your plot Share with a partner Summarize your plot and share with the class How could they stretch the plot more?

58. Sretches
[a] Beauty visits once a year. [b] Bad news is the best medicine. [c] Silence makes the heart grow fonder. [d] Strike while the head wears the crown. [e] A rolling stone is worth two in a bush. [f] Uneasy lies the head that gathers moss. [g] A penny is the mother of invention.
Often ideas come when strange or contradictory words or phrases are strung together. When you use this creative writing activity, provide a list of mixed nonsense proverbs and have students literalize them and write a paragraph on whichever one fires their imagination. Explain that the paragraph needn't be perfect or polished but should "free their muse."

59. Setting and Mood

60. TIPS: Think, Ink, Pair, Share
A place that makes you happy.
A place that holds a lot of good or bad memories for you.
A place that scares you.

61. What is mood?
What kind of mood do you think this author is trying to create? Outside the old mansion, a one-eyed crow was picking at something on the branch of a dead tree in the yard. A three-legged dog was howling at the moon.

62. Description Take out a sheet of paper number it 1 through 5
Under each number write down:
See
Touch
Taste
Hear
Smell

68. Think about your favorite picture I showed you
Write at least 3 to 5 sentences describing that setting without seeing it only using the sensory details you thought of.
After 10 mins you will share with a partner.

69. Setting Complete the first section of the worksheet as a class.
Read each of the moods listed aloud.
Students share setting details that would help to create that mood.
What are other moods we can portray?

70. Individual/ Partner Work in Mood/ Setting Worksheet
Do the second section on your own
Sit with their writing partners and take out your plot outlines.
Fill out the third section of the worksheet.
Take some time to think about where each scene takes place, what that place looks, sounds, and smells like, and what emotions they want their readers to feel in that scene.

71. Work on Your Piece

72. Warm-up
Start writing a short story that begins with the word "blue," and in which the first word of every paragraph is a color. Use the "color word" only once in each paragraph, but suggest the color in as many ways as possible.

73. Setting that Reinforces Characters

74. Step One: Describe Your Bedroom
Describe your bedroom with as much sensory detail as possible.
What's hanging on the walls?
What books are on the shelves?
What does the room smell like?
Is there music playing?
Share with a partner
Write down aspects of your partner's personality that you inferred from the description of their partner's bedroom
As you know, most novels have more than one setting. Usually, the author decides to have one large setting, like the town, country, or planet where a story takes place. But there are also lots of smaller settings too, like the main character's house at night, or the place where the characters hang out on Friday nights. Settings serve as the backdrop to the action in a novel, but they can also help you define or reinforce your characters

75. Larry
Larry's apartment was less of a living space than a glorified closet. The bathroom was just big enough to sit on the toilet without having his knees touch the sink, and the window was more like a ship's porthole. The bed was so small his feet hung over the edge, and there really was not much to do but watch static on the television. The sound of that static often kept Larry company late into the night. The place did not have a kitchen, so he bought a hotplate to make his single-serving meals. He ate the same thing every night, but he did not seem to mind the monotony of his repeated dinner of rice, wilted spinach, and baked beans, or the peculiar odor the beans left on his sheets. The only item on the wall of Larry's apartment was a framed, yellowing copy of the New York Times Best Seller list from 16 years ago. Larry's name was at the top of it. Below the newspaper clipping, on Larry's desk, sat an old, dusty typewriter and an even dustier stack of blank paper.
Larry was having a hard time. He felt sad and trapped. He was once a famous author, but he hadn’t written a word in years.
How does the second one show the reader, without telling the reader, all about Larry.

76. Creating Settings That Reinforce Characters as a Class
Open the packet, let’s do the first section together
Do the second section on your own discussing with a partner the setting and how it reinforces your character’s traits

77. Work on Your Piece

78. Warm-up
Imagine two characters. One wants to do something and the other does not. Or one wants something the other has. Write a dialogue between these two characters, where one character is determined not to give in to the other, to create extrinsic tension.

79. Partner Work: Argumentative Dialogue
Dialogue simulates real conversation, it is not an exact copy. Dialogue must be pared back to remove redundancies, mistakes, and filler words.
To illustrate this, pair off and I’ll provide each pair with a subject of debate. Whichever side one's character will take, the other's must take the opposing view.
Politely and respectfully debate their subject for five or ten minutes.
Transcribe the dialogue as closely as possible.
Remove all niceties such as please and thank you, any repetition, all filler words, etc., to capture the essence of the argument rather than the argument in its entirety.
Read your transcriptions aloud to see how the accounts differ.
Part II: Revise your dialogue set to include "beats," or the "action tags" that show the small actions characters take as they engage in dialogue.

80. Dialogue is a conversation between two or more characters
Dialogue is a conversation between two or more characters. The exact words they speak are put between quotation marks.
Students read the dialogue in the examples aloud while you or another student narrates
How do you feel the dialogue in the worksheet either moves the story forward, increases tension, or defines characters and their relationships with one another?
Try to summarize the example conversations into one sentence with no dialogue

81. Dialogue Exercise At The End Of The Dialogue Worksheet
Pick a part of your plot and, on a separate sheet of paper, write 6–10 lines of dialogue for that part of the plot.
Read your dialogue with your partner
Move into a group of four and share your dialogue pieces with each other
What “clues” did you get about characters and events from the characters’ own words in dialogue?

82. Snaps’n’Shares

83. Pep Talk from Daniel José Older
Dear Writer,
My favorite advice of all time for writing (and life) comes from a poem by Antonio Machado: “Caminante no hay camino / se hace camino al andar.”
It means, “Walker, there is no path / the path is made by walking.”
This is a perfectly concise way of saying: Kill your heroes, machete chop the barriers you’ve created in your mind, be brave and ridiculous and absolutely you in your journey to the page and beyond.
In that sense, it’s sort of the anti-writing-advice writing advice, holding up the truth that we all will have very different approaches to this messy endeavor; we all have our own paths, our own version of what it means to “make it”. And while it’s true: a lot of the “how to write” formulas they give us can be simplistic and reductive, there is merit in simply saying out loud what has worked and what has sent us crashing and burning—if nothing else because comparing notes is fun!
I’ve come to love and find shelter in the ritual of writing. The days I just sit and try to knock out words in a hurry are usually the days I stare at the screen blankly the longest. But when I slow down, ease into that transition, the process becomes a part of the ritual, the space itself seems to open up to the possibilities of what may happen, rather than the stress of what hasn’t.
Sometimes, after I’ve taken my seat and made a cup of coffee but before I begin writing, I’ll make myself listen to a whole song. It can be any song, but what’s important is that you’re not doing anything but listening and maybe dancing a little or sipping your coffee—enjoying the moment. This allows you to settle in, transition from world to word, from the everyday mundane crap to the realm of creativity.
Check in with yourself. I’ve recently started keeping a writing journal and it’s been a huge blessing to my whole process. First of all, if the first thing you write when you sit down is something no one else will ever see; it eases you into the flow of putting words on the page.
Most importantly though, keeping track of how things are going with your project makes you introspective about your own process, and that is a skill that will carry you far. How are we to make the road by walking if we don’t look down every once in a while and check our stride, our pace, our rhythm. Not only does every writer have their own flow, it’s a flow that changes over the course of our writing lives. I use the journal to keep track of plot points, ideas I’ve loved or scrapped, the evolution of my thinking on the piece, various arcs and possibilities. It becomes a running commentary on process and craft, the story of the story.
If the only blank page you’ve ever stared down is one that’s got a deadline attached to it, it’s easy to develop a singularly stressful relationship to that emptiness. But if you start to connect with yourself via the written word, that page becomes a friend, a confidante. You get to be playful, joyous, courageous.
Writing begins with forgiveness. Let go of the shame about how long it’s been since you last wrote, the clenching fear that you’re not a good enough writer, the doubts over whether or not you can get it done. Sure, the nagging demons will come creeping back, but set them aside anyway, and then set them aside again when they do. Concoct a hot beverage, play a beautiful song, look inward, and then begin.

84. Warm-up What event in your life has affected you most?
WRITING PROMPTS TO HELP HONE THE VOICE OF YOUR CHARACTER
For our daily dip each most days we’ll choose a prompt and answer/explore the prompt using the first person voice of our main character. This will help us get inside the mind of our protagonist (or even our antagonist) so that we have a better understanding of his/her world.
Write about a time when you felt safe/unsafe.
What do you like about yourself?
What do you want to change about yourself?
Complete the following: I was...I am...I will be
How are you different from others you know?
Whom do you admire and why?
Whose friendship do you value most?
What event in your life has affected you most?
What choice have you made that’s affected you most?
How would you describe your family?
What do you see as your role in your family?
Who’s made the most impact on you?
What’s the best advice you’ve ever gotten?
What do you think is good/bad about the world?
Where would you travel if you could?
How would you describe the community where you live?
What do you do to take care of yourself?
What stops you from saying what you think?

85. Creative Writing Warm-Up Choose one **5 minutes**
85. A Day in the Life: Write about your daily habits and routine.
86. Your Muse: Write about your muse – what does he or she look like? What does your muse do to inspire you?
87. Convenience Store: Write about an experience you’ve had at a gas station or convenience store.
88. Natural Wonders of the World: Choose one of the natural wonders of the world. Write about it.
89. Facebook or Twitter Status: Write a poem using the words from your latest status update or a friend’s status update. If you don’t use Facebook or Twitter, you can often search online for some funny ones to use as inspiration.